A short-range UWB impulse-radio CMOS sensor for human feature detection

This paper presents a wireless non-contact sensor that enables detection, localization, and monitoring of people along with their specific features such as gait and cardiopulmonary activities. These types of sensors can be embedded in the environment and networked with the existing wireless infrastructure to create an intelligent and responsive ambient where the health of children, patients, and the elderly can be monitored without intrusion. None of the common sensing modalities including visible optical, infra-red, and ultra-sound can operate under different visibility conditions, without Line-Of-Sight (LOS), under environmental noise, and measure human-specific features simultaneously. Radio Frequency (RF) sensors have been used to localize humans, and monitor their gait and vital signs. Most of these RF sensors transmit a Continuous Wave (CW) modulated or un-modulated waveform and detect the Doppler shift caused by the movement of hearts, lungs, and other body parts the latter referred to as micro-Doppler technique. RF sensors do not require LOS and work under extreme weather and visibility conditions.